Chinese tycoons suffered the biggest setback among the world’s US dollar-based billionaires as 160 of them slipped out of the ranking, outnumbering those from any other countries, according to a new list published by Hurun Report. They made up nearly half of the 337 drop-offs since the start of the year due to a combination of wealth-destroying events, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2022 published on Thursday. The US and Russia lost 32 and 13 billionaires, respectively. “Covid-19 and the [long-drawn] US-China trade war contributed to” the shrinking list in the affected countries, said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, a consultancy. “China’s billionaires have been hit hard.” A tech crackdown last year erased more than US$1 trillion of value from Chinese tech firms listed at home and abroad. Wealth remains under pressure as Covid-19 cases surged to the most since the Wuhan outbreak two years ago. Russia invaded Ukraine and the US dialled up delisting pressures on Chinese stocks, dialling up geopolitical risks. China’s wealthiest billionaires saw their wealth shrink the most this year, as top executives in e-commerce, real estate, education, pharmaceutical and vaping industries bore the brunt of value erosion. Nine of the top 10 losers are Chinese, the other being Mark Zuckerberg of Meta. “Other factors in play include continued anti-monopoly regulations, pressure on real estate borrowings, efforts to stem the falling birth rate, carbon emission targets and the recently introduced common prosperity theme,” the report said. Colin Huang Zheng , the founder of e -commerce group Pinduoduo , saw his net worth plunge by US$50 billion to US$19 billion, based on January 14 cut-off date, according to Hurun Report. That is twice the amount Zuckerberg lost over the same period. Despite the drop off, China continued to lead in terms of the size of the pool with 1,133 dollar-denominated billionaires, or 75 more than the previous rich list. The US had 716 with Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk at the top of the list with US$205 billion. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries topped 214 others in India. Tech stock rout provokes trillion-dollar question: has China gone too far? Overall, the world’s 3,381 known billionaires in 69 countries grew their combined wealth by 4 per cent to US$15.2 trillion. Ten of them became centillionaires , each amassing US$100 billion in wealth, according to the Hurun Report. Because of wealth destruction and global uncertainty, philanthropy has generally suffered. Only five of them donated more than US$1 billion in the past year, according to the report.